Tag (2015)

Seriously? Why? Just...why? Aki is my favorite Spoiler alert: nobody is "it". Not ever.

First of all, the film has a moderate quality in today's standards. But it has a great satirical critique. And it's not a known production, because it's not much liked by the audience and it's not a huge budget. It's a movie made in Japan. We can see in this film the appearance of skirt under white pants which is the classic of Japanese films. The film contains very exaggerated and absurd scenes for being satirical. The vast majority of disliked audiences don't like the film because of absurd, exaggerated scenes. The film starts on the bus with a school trip. It's dividing an unspecified windy bus into two. The main girl, Mitsuko, is the only survivor. After when she goes to school, she realizes she does not know anyone in the school. This school is not her school and her friends are not her friends. Then there's another weird incident in school. The teachers of the school are starting to kill everybody in the school with a scanning rifle. Mitsuko runs away from school and takes refuge in a police station. And when the cop holds the mirror to the girl, we see again the identity of someone different. And here we can understand that Mitsuko is in a game, not real life. It's quite possible to compare it to The Matrix movie. And from here on in the movie Mitsuko continues to progress like an arcade mode game. As the film progresses, it gets different identities every time. It is also possible to see a lot of Hollywood shipments in the movie. By way of example, the Keiko character's wedding could be a fighting scene at the end of The Matrix's derivation. When we continue through this, Keiko escapes from there and continues in a running race. And in this jogging race, we see everybody in the film from start to finish. At the end of the run, like a cave, Izumu entered the world of men from here. Especially noteworthy is that there are no men in the film until this scene. Here Mitsuko sees the future and faints. When Mitsuko wakes up, she finds herself in a game. We see a very old man with long hair playing with them like a PlayStation. In this case, we see a feminist critique of the use of women in the fact that all of this is a game that men do. Mitsuko is actually a dead woman in 2034 and men have created a game with her genetics. Then we see the sculptures of dead women in the film. Mitsuko then realizes that the men will start the game again and kills herself at the beginning of the game in order to break the loop. When Mitsuko dies, all the playable characters die, and mitsuko gets a chance in the snow. End overall, the film uses Feminism correctly and makes a good criticism that men dominate the woman. Because feminism sees women and men equality in symbols and improper use of it in movie. The film can be a good production made to break the perception that men lead women. As I mentioned at the beginning, the film is not very good quality, but it contains a solid criticism.

Good premise, tho I've seen this plot in other movies, can't name them cause I'd spoil too much, so I'll try to explain why I disliked it without giving the idea away.If you're heavily into Asian horror movies, especially those with a Japan touch on them, it could just happen that you'll enjoy this. But as it moves forward it starts to look like a dream, where your feet are running yet you go nowhere, time starts to stand still and everything else catches you from behind. Slowly and surely it drags itself for too long, getting harder to watch, or just to keep you eyes opened to be honest.It will happen that this movie actually ends at some point, but when you'll realize what this is all about, the idea outside the idea of the movie, the seed from where it all began, well, this is a split road right here. Either go full in or go back.Cheers!

With an opening sequence that tops 'Suicide Club" in shock value, aesthetics and eeriness, "Tag" targets a gore-hungry audience, but goes deeper with the many philosophical and psychological themes of determinism, power, fear, reality and identity."Tag" tackles greater issues than most films and does so well with a brisk pace that takes the viewer along the joyride (or hellride depending on how you see it) and makes him/her identify with the lead character's distress. The three leads who play the same persona are very well cast and effective in edging us into our seats. Their acting is grounded while the rest of the movie is often over the top at parts.The daring premise, edgy editing, themes and tones are strong, yet Sono falls slightly short of his best work by making a clearly uneven piece at times with some easy thrills and instances with little coherence or content sneaking in. He proves showy, self-indulgent, eager to please the crowd and even uses questionable short-cuts instead of going deeper into the surreal, suspenseful and sublime narrative.We are left with many questions like many of Sono's films, but in this case, we also understand that perhaps he could have asked himself more questions in the making in order to overcome some unwanted extraneous confusion and loss of focus. This is especially troublesome as it clocks less than 90 mins (uncharacteristic for long-winded Sono - see 237 mins "Love Exposure" as extreme example) and still shows some filler farce instead of sure hit fire-power.Some superficial moments over subtlety and substance holds this film back, but the brute force and fantastic screen-writing and directing defy denying this fresh film its place into the pantheon of path-breaking provocative piece of cinema.Despite its minor and more blatant flaws, this film holds well to a metaphorical mirror and is not in search of identity like its main character. It is disconnected beyond its useful purpose, but parades around arguably able to arouse sympathy and separately speak volume on our psychological individual and societal brink of breakdown.Try to be spontaneous. Accept the surreal and tolerate the slapstick and silliness.Japan 2015 | 85 mins | FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | DCP | Japanese (English subtitles)